Tour of duty in China part 1

Traveling in China in 1999

People ask me sometimes "How did you get in Thailand?" and I answer "By airplane". But in reality it was a bit more complex, so I did write some postings about that. I did write a few stories with photos about it and I call that Blast from the past. Here are two photos made in Xiahe (China) while on tour in China in 1999. This place was one of the most impressive place to visit during my all 3 weeks tour in China.

Traveling in China in 1999

Location: Xiahe, Gannan, Gansu, China

Popular posts from this blog

Visiting the Wat Phasorn Kaew in Khao Kho

Image
Along route 12 between Lomsak and Khao Kho is a beautiful temple build in Gaudi style. It is a meditation center (thanks Kees) thatwas when I visited it the first time partly still under construction. The temple itself is beautiful decorated with colourful mosaic stones. And it is located on a magnificent location on a small mountain with in the background the huge mountain range Phu Hin Rong Khla. For more information see Wat Phasornkaew . Following is a serie of photos. See also Re-visiting Wat Phasorn Kaew.





Keep reading

Repairing a long boat in Nan

Image
You might have heard of the famous Nan Long Boat Races that are held in October & November in the Nan River in Nan, North Thailand. Many villages have their own long boat and some of them are very old. So they need to be repaired sometimes. And this is done by the local people in the small village where I did live once. Mind you this is a wooden boot that can old about 40 people. Following are more photos of this work of art. For more information about the beautiful Nan province see Traveling 2 Nan - Thailand.






Keep reading

Costs of living in Thailand 2018

Image
Sometimes people ask me how much it costs to live in Thailand. Well that all depends of course about how you spend your money. Some people spend a lot of money on entertainment or holidays or do buy expensive cars & motorbikes. So since 2012 I started to make a yearly overview of my costs of living in Thailand. My household consists of my wife, me and our cat. And we are living in simple house in a small village in North Thailand. I like to travel a lot and once in the 2 or 3 years I still go to my home country to see my family. Sometimes I also still like to eat good western food and like to drink a good glass of wine. In short we like to enjoy life but not over the top. For all postings about Costs of Living in Thailand click HERE.

Housing                                                                                                                 = 3.000 THB / month We moved to a new house in another village in Nan province. This is a one-floor house with 3 bedrooms, 1 bathr…
Keep reading

The Rice Field Project Part 24 : Finally going to start

Image
As part of Living in Thailand, the Rice Field Project follows our journey of buying land, preparing it for building our house and finally building our house. This is part 24, to read the other parts click The Rice Field Project.

The original planning was to have the design papers finished before October 2018 and to start building mid October 2018. But we have been changing a bit of the design and my wife changed her mind about the day to start building. Or at least the day that the first pole has to be erected with a good luck ceremony. So the erecting of the first pole will be done on 8 November 2018. That means that they will start about 1 week before that. As said in the meanwhile we changed some small things in the design and the building permit as been applied and obtained. This week we will get the Construction Contract and the exact price. We started with a house of 1.500.000 Thai baht but we made the house bigger and higher and the price tag is now about 1.620.000 Thai baht. …
Keep reading

Travel Tips : Travel Advisory Thailand

Image
In my blog are many travel advisory postings, this one is about traveling to Thailand in general. Most people will probably look for travel advice at the website of their home country. But how correct and up to date are they? As living & traveling in Thailand for more as 20 years I have my own opinion about traveling in Thailand and that is not always the same as the travel advisory  from some countries. Why? Well because I think that first of all the relevant department might not not have the resource for an truly in-depth research into the ins & outs of the given travel advice. Secondly I think that the relevant department / country wants to protect themselves against claims in case something might happen. Sometimes this is bit a pity as unnecessary negative travel advisory can have a big economical influence on a country like Thailand. There are many travel advisory by governments, travel companies and all kind of other people. First some travel advisory for Thailand from …
Keep reading

Visiting the Samakki Tham Religious Centre in Nakhon Thai

Image
The first time passing the meditation temple I thought "What the heck is that?" and I made a quick stop for some photos. Later I returned and took some more time to talk to the people building this. It is really amazing! This is why I love travelling in Thailand ... you find such a special and sometimes weird things along your journey. For building they used cement (no sand or stones) mixed with foam. And it is amazing but this little houses do not have airco and are still cool inside ... while outside 34 Celsius. Also the main building is going to be (is) something special. With a library in the basement and a meditation room in top (heaven) while the ground floor will be lighted by a sky of LED lights in bamboo.


Keep reading

About this travel blog in 2018

Image
So somewhere in October or November  it is always time to reflect the past year of my travel-blog. I started this travel-blog in June 2009 as a message to my family & friends and to my own surprise it did change into a blog about Living & Traveling in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia with travel-information about hotels, restaurants, temples and other places of interest. This travel blog started as Walking in the Footsteps of Chang Noi, became The Little Elephant in Thailand and is now Traveling 2 Thailand. And most of the new postings are about traveling in Thailand only. For all other postings about statistics have a look HERE. At the moment there are 1825 postings, so I made 247 postings since November 2017. That is a bit above the average posting per year. There are now ......
90 Tourist Attractions postings17 postings about Train Stations262 postings with Travel Tips225 postings about My Life in Thailand67 posting about Motorbike Tripsbut the most postings (1332) are still jus…
Keep reading

Two days in Pattaya

Image
Pattaya might be world famous for its nightlife but there are much other things to see & enjoy in the beach resort city of Pattaya along the Eastern Seaboard of Thailand. Like a walk over the beach at sunset. I would not swim in the sea there but I love the sunset view here with the little lights from the city that comes alive.  Just north of Pattaya is Naklua, originally a small fishing village totally separated from what we now call Pattaya (what is actually Nong Prue). Although Naklua now has become one with Pattaya it is still is a fishing village with a huge fresh market of seafood. You can reach Naklua by Song-theauw (pickup truck taxi). Just get of at the "Big Tree" in the middle of the road.



Keep reading

A cocktail at Zepplin @ Sukhumvit 69 Restaurant & Lounge in Bangkok

Image
View from the Sky Bar at Zepplin located at the 46th floor of Le Luk condominium B Tower at W-District Sukhumvit Soi 69. See location tag. Open from 18:00 to 2:00. Besides a great view of almost 360 degrees they serve a great cocktail collection and a small Thai & Western menu. Prices are not cheap ... actually expensive. But the service is great & the cocktails fantastic.

Update 2018 : I think it is nowadays called Cielo Sky Bar & Restaurant. Open from 17:00 to 24:00.
Keep reading

A view over Nan town

Image
Overlooking Nan town from the famous Wat Khao Noi, that actually is called Wat Phra That Khao Noi. When I did go here about 3 years ago there was hardly any parking and nobody to be seen. Nowadays there are 3 parkings (and signs for it), 2 small shops selling drinks and souvenirs and there are of course Thai tourists making selfies. For more information about the beautiful Nan province see Traveling 2 Nan - Thailand.
Keep reading